The Philadelphia 76ers selected Tennessee’s Jaden Springer with the No. 28 pick in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft, then added these two players in Round 2:
No. 50 overall: Serbian F Filip Petrusev
Petrusev, a 6-foot-11 forward, actually played two seasons at Gonzaga, averaging 12 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 65 games from 2018-2020. He was the West Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2020 after leading the conference with a 56.5 percent shooting mark, but chose to go home to play for Mega Basket in his native Serbia amidst uncertainty about the 2020-21 NCAA season.
He was the 2020-21 Adriatic League MVP after averaging 23.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and shooting 43 percent from three-point range, and according to ESPN’s Mike Schmitz, Petrusev wants to come back to America, but may have to be a draft-and-stash if the Sixers and Mega Basket cannot agree to a buyout of
No. 53 overall: Western Kentucky C Charles Bassey
Bassey was born in Nigeria and didn’t play basketball until age 12, but the 6-foot-11 big man was the MVP of Raptors GM Masai Ujiri’s basketball camp two years later, and blossomed with the Hilltoppers. Bassey was First Team All-Conference USA and WKU’s first USBWA All-American in 50 years after a junior season where he averaged 17.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks in 28 games. He was a three-year starter at WKU (started all 72 games he played), and averaged 15.9 points, 10.5 boards, and 2.6 blocks per game in his collegiate career.
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